How To Survive the Revolutionary War

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

'If I turn from beholding mutilated bodies, mangled limbs, and bleeding, incurable wounds, a spectacle no less revolting is presented, of miserable objects languishing under afflicting diseases of every description.'

Dr James Thatcher wrote these words after the Battle of Saratoga, 1777. Coming before the advent of modern medicine, the danger of fighting in the Revolutionary War was not limited to physical injury, instead extending mercilessly into infection and disease.

Dr. Sanders Marble, Senior Historian at the Army Medical Department Center of History & Heritage, has been looking into the history of military medicine for 20 years. He joins Don for this episode to explore the real risks soldiers took during the Revolutionary War.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's late September 1776. We stagger through the small village of Eastchester, New York,
0:08.2	supporting our wounded comrade draped between us. Straining to keep him on his feet,
0:14.8	we head towards town, towards the village green at the intersection of four roads. Around us,
0:20.1	treeless fields extend in all directions.
0:23.3	Our comrade groans, his face pale and ashen, as we near the church turned field hospital.
0:30.7	Here, he will find the treatment he so badly needs, for so we hope. The stone and brick building,
0:37.2	its tower, only partially constructed, lo so we hope. The stone and brick building, its tower, only partially constructed,
0:40.2	looms before us. We send up a silent prayer for safety and salvation. Like an awkward,
0:47.5	six-legged beast we stumble inside. The stench in the room hits like a cannonball to the throat.
0:57.0	In the dim light, the contrast is sudden and jarring. This is no sanctuary.
0:59.0	It's more like a barn.
1:01.0	Rough, unfinished.
1:03.0	No pews, no altar.
1:04.0	Just a dirt floor crowded with soldiers.
1:07.0	All of differing ranks lying side by side on blankets and makeshift cots.
1:12.7	Warriors all, no doubt, united in their revolutionary cause,
1:17.2	but at the moment more focused on their abject misery and pain.
1:21.5	The walls echo their moans.
1:24.6	A surgeon steps up busily and finds a space for our man, hurting us towards the exit.
1:30.5	We'll see what we can do, he mutters, gloomily, shutting the wooden door behind us.
1:35.0	We pause and take a deep breath, clearing our lungs.
1:39.5	And then begin the long slog back to our troops.
	...

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